This is a variant on expressions like space-lanes from Edmond Hamilton's 1928 novel Crashing Suns.

Also, compare to hyperspace concepts like tramlines from Niven and Pournelle's 1974 classic Mote in God's Eye. Jules Verne, in his 1867 novel From the Earth to the Moon, was the first person to describe a free return trajectory, which is a scientifically accurate "path in space".